The Substance is a body horror film written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. It follows a fading celebrity, Elisabeth Sparkle Demi Moore who, after being fired by her producer Dennis Quaid due to her age, uses a black market drug that creates a younger version of herself Margaret Qualley with unexpected side effects. Noted for its satirical elements and grotesque , hyperrealistic imagery, The Substance is Fargeat's second feature film, after Revenge.
Motivated by societal pressures on women's bodies and aging , she wrote the screenplay over two years, assembling a team to co-produce the film between France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Principal photography in France lasted days directed by Fargeat. It made extensive use of prosthetic makeup designed by Pierre-Olivier Persin and primarily practical effects ; these included suits, puppetry , dummies, insert shots , and approximately 21, liters 5, US gallons of fake blood to portray Elisabeth's drug-induced transformation.
The film score was written by Raffertie and features a cover of " Pump It Up! It was a critical success and received numerous accolades , including five nominations each at the 97th Academy Awards including Best Picture and the 82nd Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy.
On her fiftieth birthday, Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-celebrated but now-faded Academy Award -winning Hollywood film star, is abruptly dismissed from her long-running aerobics TV show by the producer, Harvey, due to her age. A distraught Elisabeth crashes her car while distracted by a billboard of herself being taken down. At the hospital, a young nurse covertly gives her a flash drive advertising "The Substance", a black market drug that promises a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of oneself.
Elisabeth, intrigued and desperate, orders The Substance and injects the single-use activator serum. She convulses as her body generates a younger version of herself, [ dubious — discuss ] who emerges from a slit in her back. The two bodies must switch consciousness every seven days without exception, with the inactive body remaining unconscious and fed intravenously with a weekly food supply. Daily injections of stabilizer fluid, extracted from the original body, are required to prevent the new body from deteriorating.
